Increase the 218 character filename length limit to open files in excel
Excel can't open files with full path lengths greater than 218 characters as documented in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/213983. This is still a problem in Office 2016. It seems crazy that Excel can't open a valid file that the filesystem allows. People have been complaining about this since Office 2000. The thread below has over 11 thousand views and there are plenty others. Please fix this. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-excel/sorry-unable-to-find/595333d0-1463-499f-967e-4da8ac2e2047
Anonymous
shared this idea
Thank you for your input on Excel’s filepath limit! We have included this feature as part of upcoming work.
David [Microsoft Excel]
109 comments
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CB
commented
David....can you provide us with "when" the character issue will be resolved? Is it listed somewhere on MS Roadmap view that we can track?
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Dinesh Kumar
commented
Below Sebastin's comment resolved my problem as well.
Map the destination folder as Drive in your computer and rename the file to shorter name
I have a way to solve: I map my own C drive as a mapped drive, but lower in the folder hierarchy.
Map drive \\computername\c$\Users\Box_sync\Loooooooong_name so the path look smaller for exce -
Mil
commented
Thanks David, this issue has been faced by many for years and to hear this is finally going to be worked on is great news. Can you please provide a timeframe?
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Chris
commented
date for fixed?
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Anonymous
commented
I haven't read all of the comments below, just the last few, but when I had this problem, re-saving the file in XLSX format allowed me to open the file.
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Anonymous
commented
@David, could you elaborate on what you have planned? Are you increasing limit or eliminating the header/identifier characters from the count? If increasing max characters then what is the new target limit? We are going through considerable effort to reduce file paths with our business users and the moving target is frustrating and delaying our efforts to migrate legacy data to Sharepoint Online.
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Jon B
commented
See, the problem is that lots of us have been using an existing file structure for years and gradually settled into some compromise of reasonably short file names and reasonably short nesting path structures, that fit into the (absurd) existing 218 character structure. But now lots of us are being pushed to go to OneDrive. If we do that, whatever folder structures we have now effectively get that OneDrive identifier nonsense (30-40 characters) appended to the start of each of our paths, and suddenly our carefully thought out file structures don't work anymore!! So all of us have to shrink our paths again, and that is why all of us are screaming.
Come on. Add another 256 characters. (Or eliminate the limit altogether). -
Vivienne
commented
PLEASE NOTE: this issue is not limited to Excel. It effects all MS Office files.
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Anonymous
commented
+1
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Real Ouimet
commented
What is the timeframe?
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Anonymous
commented
Any timeframe?
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Anonymous
commented
Huzzah! Planned!!!!!!
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Brett Randall
commented
yay! PLANNED !
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Steven Reid
commented
This file length limit is also inconsistent with what is possible within Windows itself. They should be consistent.
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Florian Salzmann
commented
+1
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Anonymous
commented
+1
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Real Ouimet
commented
I use Office 365 and still the same problem...completely unacceptable.
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Nicholas D.
commented
Microsoft, what can you do to help your loyal customers?? This issue should have been fixed long ago, given the importance of cloud storage in today's world of remote business and collaborative working.
The solution is clear: Windows needs to increase its 256-character length limit for file paths.
It is a longstanding and widespread limitation of Microsoft Excel (just 218 characters, else a file cannot be opened) and other file types as well, albeit with 250+ in other cases.
This problem affects users of not only Box, Dropbox, and a host of smaller cloud data storage providers, but it even affects your own product OneDrive:
Live up to Satya's vision of a better Microsoft!
https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/files-not-syncing
https://helpdesk.egnyte.com/hc/en-us/articles/201637074-Unsupported-Characters-and-File-Types
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Anonymous
commented
Like Mikelis, that's what we had to do - so now we have a bunch of cryptic Group names, which we will likely never undo. The funny thing is that it works fine on Macs... since they never had MAX_PATH. Like I said before, I spoke to some Office guys at Ignite, and they didn't have a clue about what I was talking about or that it was even a problem...
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Mikelis
commented
For those in O365, for me this problem appeared for excel docs that where "deep" in folders. Only solution for now was to rename some folders with shorter names and review the necessity of so many levels of folders. Also we made the group names shorter, however that requires resyncing your downloaded files. To avoid redownloading - pause the sync, rename the main folders to the new shorter name and resume sync, should give option to sync only the name.